April 11 -- A nearly unanimous House voted Wednesday to lift barriers to the development of hydropower around the country, something that the bill's supporters say would help develop cheap, clean energy and create jobs. >>View Article

The Renewable Energy Finance Forum (REFF-West) kicked off its first day with a lively debate about whether the West really is exceptional when it comes to the outlook for renewables. The panel of experts weighing in included Terry Grant of Marathon Capital, Barney Schauble of Nephila Advisors LLC, Nancy Pfund of DBL Investors, J. Radford Small of Goldman Sachs, Rob Sternthal of Reznick, and Tracey A. LeBeau of the Western Area Power Administration. Renewable energy technologies, mature or maturing, are generally situated in three contexts: the policy landscape, the surrounding physical grid they serve, and the financial markets.

“Washington can be a tough place”, said John MacWilliams, senior adviser to the Secretary of Energy, in his understated manner. “Luckily, we have a president who deeply cares about these issues [renewables and climate change], and he has appointed a Secretary of Energy who is uniquely qualified to address those issues.”

August 23 -- House Republicans have summoned the leaders of 13 federal agencies to a hearing next month to examine their plans to implement a sweeping climate change agenda that President Obama outlined in a June speech. >>View Article

August 5 -- Here’s something you hardly ever see anymore. The House and Senate just passed two bills to promote clean energy around the United States. Not only that, but the votes were virtually unanimous.So what’s this mysterious energy source attracting all-but-unheard-of bipartisan affection? Hydropower. >>View Article

May 6 -- Last year, The Pew Charitable Trusts organized roundtable discussions across the country to gather input from clean energy industry leaders on strategies for enhancing U.S. competitiveness in this key sector of the global economy. Throughout these discussions, we heard from business leaders, investors, and innovators about the importance of eliminating barriers to competition and low-cost capital for clean energy technology development. >>View Article

April 29 -- Renewable energy developers may win some tax benefits from Congress that only oil and gas companies can enjoy right now. A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate last week would allow renewable and clean energy-related companies to structure their businesses as master limited partnerships -- avoiding double taxation while also trading ownership interests on the market, similar to corporate stock, Bloomberg BNA reported. >>View Article

January 3 -- The wind power industry wasn’t the only renewable energy winner in the fiscal cliff deal that cleared Congress late Tuesday – the legislation also showered taxpayer largess on the producers of various categories of biofuels. >>View Article